Another organization I have spent some time with is the Uni. The Uni is a one-of-a-kind, portable reading room for New York City. It stays permanently in New York, serving as a prototype and test kitchen for the Uni Project. They are currently working on relationships with other libraries in the five boroughs to start their own portable reading (and possibly lending) rooms.

Volunteering with the Uni has given me a chance to meet people all over the city – the installation in Corona, Queens was particularly fun and interactive. We were reading to children, children were reading to us, parents were putting puzzles together – it was a really interactive day!

The Uni at Corona, Queens - image via http://theuniproject.org

A few other cities also have roving libraries, or reading rooms. Cleveland Public Library has the BookBox. Portland, Oregon has Street Books, a bicycle powered library. Let’s not forget about the People’s Library of OWS. It could be argued the first mobile library was West Springfield’s library in Massachusetts. They started their library in 1775 by carrying their collection around the community in a two-bushel basket!

Seedsofgrace-high ridge.blogspot.com is a little mobile library I run with a friend of mine. Since we ar both school teachers, we run once a month during th school year and every other week during the summer. We visit two low income neighborhoods, and have a blast.